The Monaro region is renowned for its sheepwool industry, notably for the Merino breed. The dry-land farming supports both summer and winter wheat, and some other cereal crops, but agriculture also extends to cattle production for meat.

Like many Australian towns, its economy and social life has fallen into some degree of lethargy, and this has begun to show. The wide streets are generally well maintained; it still has a viable hotel (pub) and several small shops and a petrol station, and the churches are maintained. However, there is a sense that the youth of the town leave for the bigger towns and cities, and that the vibrancy of Dalton's heyday of the early 20th century has gone.

There is a recent move to have bed and breakfast accommodation on farms to offer a "farm experience" to city dwellers.

The underlying rock strata of the region from Dalton to Lake George some 40 km east is geologically active, with the lake formed along a fault system running north-south. Water is known to drain from the lake and reappear in the Yass River, leading to speculation that the groundwater lubricates the geological activity along the faults.

Several amateur geologists in Dalton and the surrounding region have seismic recorders that automatically send data to Geosciences Australia.

A 5.5 magnitude Richter scale earthquake occurred on 1 January 1949 in the Dalton-Gunning region. It was felt in Canberra.